Okay, so there haven’t been much in the way of updates. Sorry, I’ve been pretty busy working on two different feature projects and trying to fit the short prep into whatever spare moments I can find.

And, all of the sudden — we’re shooting in 3 days! Wow. How did that happen? The good news is, I think we’re almost ready. A very talented cast is in place, the crew is assembled, the script is tight and I’ve got most of it storyboarded.

The cast consists of Rob Zabrecky, who starred in my last short and currently appears in the new — and pretty damn cool — MTV show, Room 401, and Mageina Tovah, whose filmography is downright intimidating, and includes both Spider-Man 2 and 3.

I’m storyboarding the film with FrameForge 3D Studio 2, which is pretty useful, but can also be frustrating. There’s so much that you can do with it, but if you aren’t disciplined, you end up fiddling with details to the point that you’ve spent two hours laying out a handful of shots that only take 30 minutes to actually shoot. That kind of dicking around can turn a time-saving tool into a real time waster.

My advice, should anyone give this software a go is, try not to endlessly manipulate your character’s poses and facial expressions, and build really elaborate, detailed sets. Build a roughly accurate set, position your characters roughly where they need to be and move on.